Hello!

In the lead up to Christmas I see so many beautiful images of winter Christmas traditions of snow and dark evenings with twinkling lights but our reality is sun bright evenings and sand trekked through the house. I was looking for inspiration of what to shoot of our family. I was inspired by the 12 days of Christmas. I decided to create a photo for each of the 12 days based on our family traditions during our Australian summer Christmas on the Gold Coast. We had lots of fun creating these images as a family and my boys love to look at them. I'm glad I took on this challenge as it created special family time and photos that the boys can cherish and remember forever our summer Christmas traditions.

So sing along with me...

"On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a Kookaburra in a Christmas Tree." I chose our cheeky Australian Kookaburra. It's always fun to try to mimic their call, I'm not much of a bird watcher but everyone knows the sound of the "laugh" of the kookaburra. They're cheeky things that'll steal the ham from your sandwich if you're not watching.

"On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me, Two Christmas boxes and a kookaburra in a Christmas tree." - On the first weekend of December my boys and their cousins receive Christmas boxes with all they need for the lead up to Christmas. In it we put Christmas pajamas, their chocolate advent calendars, ugly Christmas swim rashie, a Christmas book and a Christmas craft activity. We then spend the month of december enjoying their treasures and getting excited for the count down for Christmas.

"On the thirds day of Christmas my true love gave to me, Three candy canes, Two Christmas boxes and a kookaburra in a Christmas tree." - Christmas is during our summer holidays and almost every day is spent in the pool. Ugly Christmas rashies and new pool floaties are a must on our 33degree Celsius days.

"On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, Four sandy snowmen, Three candy canes, Two Christmas boxes and a kookaburra in a Christmas tree." - I never realised just how hard it is to make sand snowmen! Especially when my two year old Max wanted to either climb on my back or smash them down before we could get them finished. Dad took the boys foraging to find shells and branches so our creations could survive for five minutes. We got here in the end, had a blast in the process and of coure ended up jumping waves in our clothes.

"On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, Five whirling fans! Four sandy snowmen, Three candy canes, Two Christmas boxes and a kookaburra in a Christmas tree." - It's 34 degrees Celcius and when we're not in the pool during Christmas holidays we're in front of a fan or lounging under the air con. It's far too hot for fireplaces and ugly Christmas sweaters, even a video of a fireplace on the TV feels too hot! Who doesn't have fond memories of listening of your robot voice when speaking into a fan as a child?

"On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, Six tubes of sunscreen, Five whirling fans! Four sandy snowmen, Three candy canes, Two Christmas boxes and a kookaburra in a Christmas tree." - Christmas in summer means it's time to "slip, slop slap!" as the catch phrase says. It's to encourage people to be sun smart, means slip on a rashie, slop on some sun screen and slap on a hat. The smell of sunscreen brings back childhood memories of summer Christmas holiday fun. Can you find all six sunscreens in our photo playing by our lake?

"On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me, Seven crackers poppin, Six tubes of sunscreen, Five whirling fans! Four sandy snowmen, Three candy canes, Two Christmas boxes and a kookaburra in a Christmas tree." - It's not Christmas in Australia unless there's a Christmas cracker on everyone's plate at the table on Christmas day. You pull your cracker with the person beside you and see who wins the prize inside. Often the little kids run around the table and pull as many crackers with everyone as they can. Inside is your celebratory paper hat, a terrible Christmas dad joke and some useless trinket that's forgotten about before the food's finished. It's a banging good time.

"On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, Eight zooper doopers, Seven crackers poppin, Six tubes of sunscreen, Five whirling fans! Four sandy snowmen, Three candy canes, Two Christmas boxes and a kookaburra in a Christmas tree." - Running through sprinklers and icy poles are a summer Christmas holiday must, even if you have a pool. Everyone's freezers are stocked with icy zooper doopers ready for squealing kids. Can you spot them all?

"On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, Nine stamps to Santa, Eight zooper doopers, Seven crackers poppin, Six tubes of sunscreen, Five whirling fans! Four sandy snowmen, Three candy canes, Two Christmas boxes and a kookaburra in a Christmas tree." - This year our letter to Satna was all our names written by Hugo and a beautiful drawing of a Christmas tree. No wish list as I was informed that "Santa knows waht I want". We even had a beautiful letter of reply from the North Pole delivered by our scout elf called Jingle Bells.

"On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, Ten prawns on the barbie, Nine stamps to Santa, Eight zooper doopers, Seven crackers poppin, Six tubes of sunscreen, Five whirling fans! Four sandy snowmen, Three candy canes, Two Christmas boxes and a kookaburra in a Christmas tree." - A seafood lunch is very common on Christmas day in Australia. The trawlers had a line far to the horizon and the car are double parked with everyone trying to get their fresh seafood for the festivities. Barbequing is a great option as it keeps the heat outside and it's delicious of course. Our family eat prawns, crab, Morten Bay bugs, oysters and fish for lunch. Followed by a traditional turkey for dinner with some lamb slow cooked on the smoker.

"On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me, Eleven carols by candlelight, Ten prawns on the barbie, Nine stamps to Santa, Eight zooper doopers, Seven crackers poppin, Six tubes of sunscreen, Five whirling fans! Four sandy snowmen, Three candy canes, Two Christmas boxes and a kookaburra in a Christmas tree." - I started the tradition of a dinner by candlelight on Christmas Eve. We have an easy no prep dinner of cheese, cold meats and fruit. I put on Christmas carols and set up fairy lights and candles (electronic) and we listen out for Santa's sleigh bells. The kids leave out their magical key to Santa to use to come into our house and of course his milk and cookies.

"On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, Twelve Million chocolate balls, Eleven carols by candlelight, Ten prawns on the barbie, Nine stamps to Santa, Eight zooper doopers, Seven crackers poppin, Six tubes of sunscreen, Five whirling fans! Four sandy snowmen, Three candy canes, Two Christmas boxes and a kookaburra in a Christmas tree." - Since I was a teenager every year I've made these chocoalte balls that look like mini Christmas puddings. It feels like each year I need to make more and more as our loved ones enjoy them and we can't help but sneak a few ourselves from the fridge in the lead up to Christmas. Now Hugo helps me make them (strategically while max is napping). It really feels like christams when we bite into these delights. We definitely made twelve million this year, they just didn't all fit in the frame...

Some behind the scenes photos of our 12 Days of Christmas in the making. All photos were taken with my Nikon Z8 Nikkor 28-75mm and some with my Profoto A10 used off camera with Clic Octa Softbox 2.3'

Merry Christmas from my family to yours! This was a very fun project and perhaps if I can think of enough images I'll do it again next Christmas.

Lizzie xx